Danny Toumarkine cannot remember what happened.
Danny is a professional snowboarder. He and his brother were filming video when
Danny went over a hill. Nobody saw what
happened. Danny doesn’t remember
anything from the incident.
Danny is fortunate to be alive today.
Any time you choose to play a sport, drive a car, work with
power equipment, or do any extensive physical activity you assume a certain
amount of risk. When it comes to our
young athletes, parents also assume the risks involved with their child playing
a sport. Of course, no parent wants to
see their child hurt. And many times
parents are quick to blame coaches, equipment manufacturers, school districts,
etc., when their child is the injured party.
Whether it’s getting hit by a line drive, breaking an ankle
sliding into a base, breaking anything playing football, basketball, etc., we
want to protect our children. Yet when
it comes to protecting ourselves we often sing a different tune. And when a law is passed, i.e. motorcycle
helmet laws, we suddenly forget about the risks we are taking and scream loudly
about somebody infringing on our rights to go unprotected. How is it that we can so easily lose common
sense when it comes to safety?
We don’t complain about the protection equipment we have to
wear if we work with certain equipment or machinery. We want our paycheck. We don’t have too many options there.
When it comes to youth sports or adult sports, we have
plenty of excuses NOT to wear certain protection UNTIL it’s our kid, or
ourselves that get hurt. The NCAA does
not mandate that softball players wear facemasks on their batting helmets. Facemasks are optional. Last year I saw a player take a foul ball up
under her chin to her throat. She was
not wearing a facemask. It could have
resulted in a very serious injury, or possibly even death. She came back up to bat a few moments later
and guess what, she had a facemask. Some
people want to mandate facemasks for infielders who sometimes get hit by line
drives.
When you talk about boy’s baseball, I don’t think any self
respecting baseball player gets caught dead wearing a facemask. Although in recent years we have seen some
coaches starting to wear helmets in the 3rd base coach’s box. Like softball, I think part of the reasoning
is that the actual percentages are so low and we think we should be able to
react quickly enough to avoid or defend ourselves. Can we?
So now back to Danny Toumarkine. Danny was not wearing a helmet when he had
his accident in 2010. Danny now wears and
advocates wearing a helmet for snowboarders and skiers. The official governing bodies and most ski
resorts do not mandate helmet usage.
Like the motorcycle community, will skiers and snowboarders revolt at
the loss of rights and freedoms that would be sacrificed if one had to wear
that “thing” around your head? You might
want to ask Danny how much freedom he had when he was in that hospital bed.
And while one might defend the options when it comes to
sports like baseball, softball, etc., there is a very uniquely different factor
one might consider when it comes to motorcycles, skiing, snowboarding,
etc: A baseball or softball player
usually will survive being hit by a ball, even in head or face. But the last I checked, trees and rocks have
never lost a battle when colliding with a skier or snowboarder. The record is just slightly less than that of
an Amtrack train challenged by that driver trying to beat the train across the
tracks.
So while we never have any guarantees – we are all subject
to die at any moment for almost any reason – I vote to try to stay alive for as
long as I can possibly do so. Please
watch the video about Danny’s story.
Share this with your children, especially if you like to snow ski or
snowboard. Share it with your
friends. Danny’s story is a
miracle. His recovery is very
inspiring. This is a determined young
man who loves his sport and who I’m quite sure would like to keep participating
for many years to come.
He also now wears a helmet.
